Clear Stamps Reorganized

Hello Again
Hi everyone! Hope everyone is warm & well.  We have been covered in snow for far too long now and I have a real bad case of 'Cabin Fever' but lucky for me I also have lots of scrap book toys-n-things to play with and I have lots of ideas going on in my noggin.  : )
  Of course with that comes lots of unfinished projects too, like my December Daily (Gasp!!!) yes folks, once again I am having far too hard a time completing it.  Sounds silly I know, take a couple of pictures everyday and throw 'em in a book - add a couple of thoughts & some cool quotes to mix it up a bit and there you have it; sounds simple I know (I have fallen for this twice now) but I assure you it isn't that 'simple'.  I forget about the part of uploading all the photos, then editing them, don't forget cropping, then finally printing; if printing from home-which I normally do (heaven forbid if I had to wait for a printing company) then you have to make sure you have photo paper & plenty of ink.  Then after all of that, I still have to put the photos in the book, and of course I want it to look good, but I also want to incorporate some - if not @ least half - of the ephemera that I have pain-stakingly collected for the last month; so now comes the fretting (what if I screw it up, what if it isn't perfect, what if nobody cares, what if...blah, blah, blah) and so now you understand why for me, it's a losing battle.  So if I EVER decide to do another December Daily - somebody PLEASE pinch me!  : )  Needless to say that project is NOT done yet, but as soon as I get it done, I will be more than happy to share it with you.



Now on to greener pastures, let me think.......  Today I want to share with you some of the reorganization steps I have taken to improve my efficiency in my scrap space.  For Christmas I asked my husband to get me the 'Clip It Up' by Simply Renee (here), and well in order for me to use it the way I envisioned I had to get something other than the pockets that they offer, so I got on-line and found Century Business Solutions, they sell job envelopes (here) - they are basically an over-sized plastic badge holder, but even bigger.  The ones I decided to try are about the size of a piece of paper, maybe a bit taller, and they are vinyl - which I am hoping will last a bit longer.  So.... last week as we were being snowed in with about 9 inches of the white stuff, I got to work on getting this new system in play.....the outcome......OMG - I love it, absolutely love it.  I now have all of my cling mount/clear stamps sitting within arms reach of my desk and being that it is on the 'clip-it-up' it spins so that I can get to any one of them in a matter of seconds.  For those of you that don't scrap - imagine one of those older clothes racks, the circle kind that all the department stores use to have, this clip-it-up is similar to that and it spins, super cool and super handy.



This is what it looks like with all of my stamps in their envelopes




This thing is huge but so worth it I think in the long run




I think later I will add some side labels so that I can find my favorite 'go-to' stamps even faster




My first reaction to it, once I got it up was, "Do I really have this many stamps?"  The answer is, "Yes I do - how lucky am I!"  The reason I like this set up so much better is because I can actually see the set, I couldn't do that with my old system.  With this one, while I was putting all of the stamps into their envelope, I added a plain white sheet of paper behind each one - which I'm hoping will be helpful when I'm looking for 'the one'.  Do any of you ever have that feeling that even though you don't know exactly what it is your looking for, you'll know it when you see it- well it's hopefully going to work something like that, I think.



To the left is a look @ my craft desk - it's actually clean - a rare sight




Some other storage that is in my scrap closet




Some new storage that sits below the shelf of baskets in my craft closet


Here are a few other random shots I took of my space. In the first photo, my desk, although I hardly ever work @ it, it's usually the one covered with all of the products I'm using for whichever project I'm in the middle of, but you're lucky it was cleaned off for this photo (LOL).  I also have a 4 foot fold-out utility table (not pictured) which is where I do most of my work.  There is more space to work @ my table rather than @ my desk, so like I said, I use the desk more as a dumping ground.
In the second photo I have all of my baskets & other storage.  On the very top shelf of this closest I have 5 wicker baskets that I had picked up years ago to use with the changing table in our nursery, now that those are no longer needed for their original purpose I thought it would be good to find a new home for them and so here they now sit in my craft closet and house all of my ribbons, laces, & trims - well almost all of it.  I did break down each of my baskets to have a color theme (sort of) they are as follows: 
white
                black, silver, & gray
              brown, creme, & tan
                      red, pink, orange, & yellow
                blue, green, & purple


As for the rest of the storage: the canvas/wire baskets hold 3-dimension stickers and embellishments, along with some sticker packs; then the silver tins hold all of my paper things to alter: mint boxes, pillow boxes, paper lunch bags, even mini Chinese to-go boxes, and I believe that they also have all of my ATC blanks (you ask: what the heck is an ATC? go here &/or here to find out).  The clear box on the very far right has all of my DMC floss in it from when I use to do cross stitch, I now use it in my scrap projects instead.  
In the second photo, I have lots of things going on, I should have taken some things out before taking the photo, but oh well.  I'll start @ the top of my new black wire shelf: top row on the left I have 4 black fabric/wire baskets that hold all of my big punches, the 2 white boxes on the right hold my odd sized paper packs (4x4, 6x6, 5x7) and different office type paper packs (index cards, note pads, etc.)   On the 2nd & 3rd shelves I have 15 black photo boxes with different things corralled in them.  For example one box has metal things: binder rings, mini banker clips, extra large paper clips, chains, etc.  Another box has all my paper flowers in it and another one has lots of different pieces to make my own flowers.  One box I keep empty so that when I have new stuff and no time to put it away, I can put it in there until I do have time to put it where it belongs.  My 2 favorite boxes have a specific brand in them - one is Tim Holtz (here) and the other is 7 Gypsies (here).  As for all the other boxes; some have fabric, some have all natural elements (wood-cork-mica), one has felt & foam, another has plastic embellishments, and so on & so forth.  The bottom of the wire shelf is where I keep some odd-size things: so starting on the left I have a file folder with all of my stencils in it; next to it is the big black file box that has all of my solid color scrap card stock (meaning that it is not a full sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 or 12x12); then next to that are 2 other black boxes that have more things to alter; last but not least is the brown & black bag, that is my crop bag, so when I go somewhere to scrap - I pack up what I need in it along with a couple of other smaller bags for tools & such and take it all with me.  So there you have it, my scrap space & closet.  I do also keep in the closet - my sewing machine; my tool bag; my tool box; my 3 drawer cart that has all the rest of my ribbon stash, my large wood mounted stamps, and all of my dies & texture plates; and then also my small 5 drawer wood chest that has everything else in it....it's a large closet.....  thankfully!  : )


So I guess that about wraps it up, I hope that you have enjoyed my mini photo tour of my scrap space; one day maybe I will put up a video on YouTube walking everyone through it, but until then I hope all of you are safe & warm.


Here's to Springtime.... come & get me......I dare ya! : )




just B.....

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